Defending champion Simona Halep made light work of Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko to reach the French Open last 16.

Romania’s Halep, seeded third, needed just 55 minutes to win 6-2 6-1 against the 27th seed.

Tsurenko failed to hold any of her eight service games on Philippe Chatrier.

Former world number one Halep, 27, will face one of unseeded pair Monica Puig and Iga Swiatek for a place in the quarter-finals.

“It was a tough match even if the scoreline does not show it,” Halep said. “Every day in my life I have that image of me winning last year in my mind, it was my greatest moment of my career.”

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A favourable draw has further opened up for Halep, who cannot now face another seeded opponent until the semi-finals where top seed Naomi Osaka or 23-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams could await.

In her attempts to defend the title, the Romanian is trying to buck a trend that has been difficult to break.

If she manages to lift the Coupe de Suzanne Lenglen again a week on Sunday, she will become only the sixth woman to defend the trophy in the Open era after Margaret Court, Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles and Justine Henin.

To do that she will expect to have to work much harder than she did against Tsurenko, who appeared to struggle with injury or perhaps the effects of a long second-round match that was played over two days and only finished on Friday.

The Ukrainian needed a lengthy medical timeout in the second set, where she lay on a mat on the ground receiving treatment to her hip.

After three-set tests in her opening two matches against Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic and Poland’s Magda Linette, Halep would have been grateful for a more routine victory.

Tsurenko, 30, made 32 unforced errors and won just 28% of her service points, although showed brief resistance to fight off two match points before succumbing.